Vulnerable people disappeared in Anderson. Police weren't told for hours or longer. Regulators didn't know

Willie Lee Shell, who is deaf and unable to speak, disappeared from Upstate Residential Care three times in two months, according to Anderson police records. The fourth time he disappeared, he was gone for days before anyone called police.

His case is but one in a long history of troubling incidents at the Anderson assisted living facility.

Relevant police and state records don't add up.

More:Sexual assaults, beatings, missing residents: A history of trouble at Anderson assisted living home

In South Carolina, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control is responsible for overseeing the quality of services at assisted living facilities such as Upstate Residential Care, but records reveal a gap in accountability. Many of the disappearances from the home were never disclosed to regulators, an Independent Mail investigation found.

If a resident of Upstate Residential Care leaves for more than 24 hours without notifying the staff, the facility is required to report the incident to DHEC, local law enforcement and the resident's "responsible party," said DHEC spokesman Tommy Crosby.

But what happens if a vulnerable resident disappears for less than a day?

According to state regulations, an assisted living facility's administrator or someone he designates must notify police immediately if a cognitively impaired resident leaves the home's premises for any amount of time without notice to the staff. 

The first time Shell left, Dec. 11, 2013, he was gone from the two-story brick building on South McDuffie Street for 10 hours and 58 minutes before Horace Alexander, the owner of the facility, called police, according to the times clocked on an officer's incident report.

Alexander told police that Shell was "mentally challenged." Alexander said Shell could communicate only in sign language or writing. 

Alexander said Shell, then 57, had left the home at 9 a.m. that winter day wearing an orange Clemson University pullover and faded purple sweatpants. Alexander told officers that he didn't know which direction Shell was traveling or where he intended to go.

Less than a month later, on Jan. 6, 2014, Shell left the home again. Alexander told police Shell had left at 6:30 a.m. and had missed the facility's 7 p.m curfew. Alexander notified police of Shell's absence at 8:21 p.m. Alexander told officers Shell "becomes agitated and violent if he is told he cannot leave the property to drink." He told them Shell had left on "multiple occasions" and found people to give him money so he could buy alcohol.

A month later, Shell left Upstate Residential Care again, this time at 6 a.m. Police were notified at 10:33 a.m. A worker told police Shell left wearing a black and gray jacket.

It's not clear when or how he returned to the facility the first three times he left.

Six months later, Shell left the home for a fourth time. Three days passed before Upstate Residential Care called Anderson police on Aug. 25, 2014, according to a police report. The report offers little information except that he "left walking" on Aug. 22 and hadn't returned. Police sought the public's help to find Shell and told media he may have left the home to buy cigarettes.

Four days after he disappeared, Shell was found uninjured in Greenville.

Upstate Residential Care never reported Shell's disappearances to DHEC, according to records.

DHEC sent an inspector to the home after the South Carolina Governor's Office of the Ombudsman filed a complaint about the way Upstate Residential Care handled Shell's fourth disappearance. In agency records, DHEC refers to Shell only as "Resident A." The dates and details included in DHEC's records match those in Anderson police records about Shell.

On Sept. 9, 2014, DHEC cited Upstate Residential Care for failing to report Shell's disappearance and for recording that he "rejected his medications" on five days that he was actually missing from the facility.

Alexander said Shell had tried to leave the assisted living facility many times, and given that, he thought the time he took to notify police was reasonable. He wrote that his staff was under the impression that Upstate Residential Care Residents "refused their medications if they failed to be on campus at the time the medications were to be dispensed."

"It appears we have become a dumping ground for people who would otherwise be homeless or public nuisances, and in return, we find ourselves the brunt of all complaints," Alexander wrote to DHEC.

When contacted by an Independent Mail reporter, Alexander declined to comment for this article.

Anderson police records show that residents were reported missing from Upstate Residential Care at least 10 times in the last five years, with most of those disappearances occurring in 2014.

None of the disappearances were detailed in four serious incidents reported by the facility to DHEC.

A schizophrenic man who was placed at the home "by mental health" walked away after having an argument with another resident, according to police records. The man was gone for more than three hours before someone from the facility notified police that he had missed the evening curfew.

Another schizophrenic man walked away from the home the day after he started living there. He left at 6 p.m. and was supposed to be back an hour later, Alexander told police. Records show that police were dispatched to the facility at 10:25 p.m., more than three hours after the mentally ill man had walked away. Police noted in their incident report that Alexander had "waited a few hours and then notified law enforcement."

On another occasion, an Upstate Residential Care worker called police and said a resident who was "required to take several medications" had left the home the day before to go to AnMed Health Medical Center's emergency room and had not returned. At least 22 hours passed before the worker called police.

In another case, a teenager described as having the mental capacity of a 6-year-old disappeared from Upstate Residential Care twice in two days. According to a police report, Alexander told officers that the 19-year-old was at his facility because he was ordered by the court to be there. Alexander described the teen as having a "history of mental issues such as ADHD, bipolar and mood disorders."

Alexander told police the teen had left the facility with another resident who has a mental health problem and whom he described as "addicted to crack cocaine." Alexander told police both residents were probably "at a crack house on the south side of town."

Six months after that, police called Alexander about a missing resident instead of Alexander calling police. 

The woman was standing outside The Little General on South Murray Avenue when officers found her. Someone called 911 after seeing her at the Anderson convenience store asking for help.

A police report describes her in the briefest of terms: Asian, "very confused" and having "medical issues."

She had with her a piece of paper that bore the address of Upstate Residential Care. When officers called the assisted living facility a half-mile away, the owner said "it was just discovered" that the 58-year-old woman had walked away. It's not clear how long she had been gone.

Follow Nikie Mayo on Twitter @NikieMayo or email her at mayon@independentmail.com.